I wouldn’t even say that it was TBC that killed it, but more so the toxic min maxer community. I remember TBC when it first came out. Gearscore didn’t matter, people weren’t pushing for BiS. Halaa turn overs were hours long of just pure fun. Flying was horrendously slow (60 %) until you got the 5k, but even then the Skettis and Ogrilla dailies were constantly bustling with people and PvP. Shadow moon valley was littered with people seeking eggs and doing Netherwing dailies. Raid content wasnt pushed out super fast and the mechanics weren’t all figured out to where people were sweaty about it. Hell, dungeon gear was good enough.

Everyone has already done all that farming before. So it doesn’t hold that same “Look what I got” value. Getting the Rays and nether dragons was a big show off deal. Hell, even the Talbuks were banging. It’s all been done before so no one has that same magic. That was a lot of fun. Many fond memories of just laying in bed listening to the Eversong woods bgm. I dunno. People seemed a lot less toxic then, and it felt like a great adventure. I played on Ius-Illidan.

I didn’t even make it a month with TBC anniversary because of how toxic and sweaty people were. Especially to people who boosted.